Widows of criminals doing it for themselves, the seed of modern politics and the perils of war reporting

As I mentioned, I’m away this week. That means this rundown of the new movies in town is not comprehensive. I could only include films I had seen before I left and in most cases I can’t tell you what theatres are showing them.

But there are some key films here. Read on.

Widows: 4½

The Front Runner: 3

A Private War: 4

Transit: 4 ½

Searching for Ingmar Bergman: 3 ½

Fantastic Beasts 2: --

Instant Family:--

WIDOWS: Heist films are among the most fun among all the movies and Steve McQueen has made this into an exceptionally good one. There’s context around this job, the self-determination of women, racial friction in the US and most helpfully the machinations of local politicians, in this case in Chicago. There’s so much there to keep your mind working that you’ll never be bored, will usually be nodding with recognition and even a few times be startled. There’s also a built-in surprise but that’s common in these kinds of films.

Four crooks die in a warehouse explosion and fire. Liam Neeson played one and we got to know him early on in a love scene with his wife (Viola Davis). Now she’s threatened by local gangsters to whom he owed money. She’s got a month to pay it off and comes up with this plan: get the other widows together and pull a big job. One of the guys left behind a notebook with detailed plans. They just have to figure out where (that takes a while), get some guns (“From where?“ asks the woman given that job. “This is America,” Viola snaps back at her.) and then do the heist. The film crackles with energy, moves along at a clip and has a rich backdrop with Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell intruding now and then but generally playing the power and corruption games typical of ward bosses in city politics. The story is from a novel which became a British mini-series and has been successfully transposed stateside by McQueen (Oscar winner for 12 Years a Slave) and Gillian Flynn (best known for the novel and screenplay, Gone Girl). There will be nominations. 4 ½ out of 5

THE FRONT RUNNER: As a movie about politics this one is relatively mild. We see stronger stuff on the news channels these days. But as a reminder about how much politics has changed over the years, and how much the volume has been turned up, it works nicely. Certainly when looking at the US where this story happened. Gary Hart was a popular Senator in 1988, especially with young voters, and seemed a cinch to be the Democrats’ candidate for president. In just three weeks his campaign collapsed allowing Michael Dukakis to be the candidate and George H. W. Bush to become president.

The film, by Jason Reitman and financed in part by Bron Studios here in Burnaby, shows exactly what happened. Hugh Jackman is Hart (well-played), the Miami Herald gets wind of problems in his marriage and starts suggesting infidelity. (Hart and his wife were separated apparently, but that didn’t defer the scandal). A reporter asks him directly and in public: “Did you commit adultery?” and his bid was over. These days Trump can stay in power with allegations far more sordid and his Supreme Court nominee was asked this far more low a question: “Are you a gang rapist”. It happened, right on TV at his confirmation hearing. Hart’s case was an early episode of tabloid journalism, maybe the opening. The film is based on Matt Bai’s book All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid. First or not, the film is a case study and pretty well told about how easily gossip can sidetrack real issues. I think some politicians may have learned from it, but exactly what lessons? 3 out of 5

A PRIVATE WAR: This is the most accurate representation I’ve ever seen of a certain type of woman reporter. She’s tough, skeptical and most of all driven. I’ve met some and from that limited vantage point attest that there’s reality in Rosamund Pike’s performance as Marie Colvin, a long-time reporter from the world’s trouble spots for the London Sunday Times. She was an American who even after an attack in Sri Lanka that cost her an eye, demanded to be sent to the war zones because, as she said, she had to see it for herself. “You have to find the truth of it. If you lose that you’re not helping anybody,” she says in a voice over which reflects a major Vanity Affair article about her. That’s where the title comes from too.

We see Colvin reporting from Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and other countries, counting down to Syria where she was killed during the siege of Homs in 2012. She did a live broadcast from there to Anderson Cooper at CNN. In many places earlier we had seen her dodging bullets and explosions, talking her way through checkpoints and interviewing terrified people hiding in shelters. That was her passion, documenting the horrors that ordinary people experience in wartime. “Quiet bravery” she called it but she was never sure whether reporting on it made any difference. Her editor (Tom Hollander) offered this: “You have a God-given talent to make people stop and care.” She won awards but also suffered post traumatic stress syndrome at times and self-medicated with alcohol. With both Jamie Dornan and Stanley Tucci as lovers, this is a pretty full portrait of a complex woman. Matthew Heineman, the director, uses his background in documentaries to very good effect. 4 out of 5

TRANSIT: Here’s a fresh and quite unusual look at the refugee and migrant crisis. It’s from Germany where its humanism may be more and more in need but is set in France. With an odd twist it recalls an earlier crisis to elucidate this new one. Christian Petzold, the German director whose last two films, Phoenix and Barbara, I also praised, took a novel about World War II, re-set it in modern times and allowed the contrast to speak to us.

People are trying to escape from France ahead of a fascist invasion and “cleansing.” One man, played by Franz Rogowski, who looks a lot like Joaquin Phoenix, gets hold of a deceased writer’s transit papers and assumes his identity. The papers include an invitation to come to Mexico and that prompts him to travel south to Marseilles, deal with the consulate there and keep out of sight of the police as he waits for a ship. He befriends a boy and his mother and periodically crosses paths with a mysterious woman. A strong what’s-happening mystery rises and keeps you rapt. As he deals with bureaucrats and meets people referred to as “illegals,” he knows he’s powerless to help. But we’re compelled to think about what is and increasingly isn’t being done for them. This film is brilliantly acted and paced, eloquent and suspenseful. It was one of my favorites at the film festival. (VanCity Theatre) 4 ½ out of 5

SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN: Cinephiles have been celebrating this year as Bergman’s 100th to recognize that he was born one century ago and that he became one of the most important filmmakers of all time. His legacy is so strong that it’s not surprising that two major biographical documentaries came out this year. Bergman-A Year in the Life played at the film festival. Searching … is a more personal appreciation by another filmmaker, Margarethe von Trotta who starts her examination on the same beach that Bergman had the knight and death playing chess. Then she explores his story with other directors like Olivier Assayas, actors like Liv Ullman (she’s in both documentaries) and members of his family.

Daniel, a director himself, describes a brittle relationship with his dad. He doesn’t miss him, he says. Ingmar, who echoed his own childhood in many of his films, was aloof from his own kids. There were many. Daniel describes a party they all came to. He had never seen most of them. Scenes like that add a lot to what we already of him and this film is a good companion piece to the other. An actor calls him a “poor bastard because he brooded so much” and a producer says he “never thought he was good enough.” The film goes on to his tax exile from Sweden, his brief stay in America and his work in Germany. But along with all that, it passes on von Trotta’s deep love and respect for his work.(Cinematheque) 3 ½ out of 5

Also now playing …

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD: Episode two in J.K. Rowling’s post-Harry Potter creation has more of the same, too much of it, according to Variety. Eddie Redmayne once again plays magizoologist Newt Scamander and he again has to battle the wizrd Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) who he captured in the previous film but has escaped with hopes of getting control over the world’s non-magical people. The chase leads to Paris where too many other characters, but too little actual magic, show up. That’s according to Variety again and with a running time of 2 ½ hours it could be true.

INSTANT FAMILY: Paramount Pictures recently had big hits with their Daddy’s Home movies (2015 and the sequel 2017). Now the writer/director of those two, Sean Anders, draws on his own experiences for a new family comedy timed to American Thanksgiving. He’s brought back the same star, Mark Wahlberg, to play the father opposite Rose Byrne as the mother. They adopt three children who prove to be wild and unmanageable. Whatever will happen here? Mark won’t put up with it surely.